Cerebellar Alterations in Individuals With a Cannabis Use Disorder

Alterations in Cerebellar-dependent Adaptation Due to Cannabis Use Measured With an Explicit-implicit Visuo-motor Learning Paradigm

The purpose of this study is to investigate if individuals with a cannabis use disorder have an impaired cerebellar function by assessing possible alterations to their implicit adaptation during a visuomotor rotation task.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Cannabis
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Visuo-motor rotation; Behavioral: Explicit strategy

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 32
• Phase: Not Applicable

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 18 years to 50 years (ADULT)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Patients diagnosed with a Cannabis use disorder following Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM-V) criteria.
• Patients screen positive to cannabis in the urine analysis performed a week prior to assessment.
• Right-handed patients.
• Patients provide a signed consent.

Exclusion Criteria:

• Patients with another current substance use disorder (with the exception of tobacco).
• Patients with a visual impairment that has not been corrected.
• Patients with a cognitive impairment such as mental retardation.
• Patients with psychotic disorders.

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: BASIC_SCIENCE
• Allocation: RANDOMIZED
• Interventional Model: PARALLEL
• Masking: NONE

Number of Arms

4

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
EXPERIMENTAL: Experimental Explicit; Cannabis user performs visuo-motor rotation tasks informed of an explicit strategy to maximise performance	Behavioral: Visuo-motor rotation; Participant moves a cursor on a screen by sliding a pen over a digital tablet. Participants perform a center-out movement, aiming to a target that appears over one of a set of eight markers radially distributed. In several block of trials, the mapping of the pen position to the cursor is rotated.; Behavioral: Explicit strategy; Participant is provided with an explicit instruction as to how counteract the effects of the visuo-motor rotation via aiming to a marker adjacent target
ACTIVE_COMPARATOR: Control Explicit; Healthy subject performs visuo-motor rotation tasks informed of an explicit strategy to maximise performance	Behavioral: Visuo-motor rotation; Participant moves a cursor on a screen by sliding a pen over a digital tablet. Participants perform a center-out movement, aiming to a target that appears over one of a set of eight markers radially distributed. In several block of trials, the mapping of the pen position to the cursor is rotated.
EXPERIMENTAL: Experimental Implicit; Cannabis user performs visuo-motor rotation tasks without being informed of the explicit strategy	Behavioral: Visuo-motor rotation; Participant moves a cursor on a screen by sliding a pen over a digital tablet. Participants perform a center-out movement, aiming to a target that appears over one of a set of eight markers radially distributed. In several block of trials, the mapping of the pen position to the cursor is rotated.; Behavioral: Explicit strategy; Participant is provided with an explicit instruction as to how counteract the effects of the visuo-motor rotation via aiming to a marker adjacent target
ACTIVE_COMPARATOR: Control Implicit; Healthy subject performs visuo-motor rotation tasks without being informed of the explicit strategy	Behavioral: Visuo-motor rotation; Participant moves a cursor on a screen by sliding a pen over a digital tablet. Participants perform a center-out movement, aiming to a target that appears over one of a set of eight markers radially distributed. In several block of trials, the mapping of the pen position to the cursor is rotated.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Time Frame
Directional error of hand trajectories towards a target	1 day (a single session)

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Time Frame
Reaction times	1 day (a single session)
Intrinsic Motivational Inventory	1 day (a single session)

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Universitat Pompeu Fabra
• Collaborators: Hospital Clinic of Barcelona; Institut d'Investigacions Biomèdiques August Pi i Sunyer

Publications and helpful links

General Publications

• Taylor JA, Klemfuss NM, Ivry RB. An explicit strategy prevails when the cerebellum fails to compute movement errors. Cerebellum. 2010 Dec;9(4):580-6. doi: 10.1007/s12311-010-0201-x.
• Mazzoni P, Krakauer JW. An implicit plan overrides an explicit strategy during visuomotor adaptation. J Neurosci. 2006 Apr 5;26(14):3642-5. doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.5317-05.2006.

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (ACTUAL): June 1, 2016
• Primary Completion (ACTUAL): April 1, 2017
• Study Completion (ACTUAL): April 1, 2017

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: June 6, 2016
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: June 27, 2016
• First Posted (ESTIMATE): June 28, 2016

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (ACTUAL): November 5, 2018
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: November 1, 2018
• Last Verified: November 1, 2018

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: Learning; Cerebellum
• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Mental Disorders; Chemically-Induced Disorders; Substance-Related Disorders; Marijuana Abuse
• Other Study ID Numbers: CannabinoidsCerebellum